"I Will Build My Church" -- From All Peoples

Missions Week

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea
Philippi, He was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the
Son of Man is?" 14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist; and
others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God." 17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona,
because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father
who is in heaven. 18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not
overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." 20
Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He
was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples
that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the
elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised
up on the third day. 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke
Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You."
23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are
a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's
interests, but man's." 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If
anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up
his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life
will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his
soul?"

I listened to Oscar's message last Sunday by tape as soon as I
got home from England. It was, as I knew it would be, a powerful
call to make disciples and prepare elders for new churches in the
age of Jihad, by avoiding unnecessary controversy, being saturated
with the Bible, and throwing yourself into difficult ministry where
boldness in the Word is necessary. He said the outrageous truth
that Jihad is a gift to the American church. Why?

Because it forces the nominal Christian bluff; either we get
make disciples and plant churches or we will be converted. Islam is
out to take the world.

It produces economic instability so we are pressed toward the
wartime lifestyle we should have been living all along.

It helps us identify with the church in the rest of the world,
which has known this threat and instability all along. Now we can
learn how to prepare elders for the real church.

It presses us to center the discipling of our children in the
home, because the church building and Pastor John may be blown up
anyway. You can't lean on the building or the preacher.

It wakes us up to the glorious truth that in the end what
matters is the resurrection with Christ. To live is Christ and to
die is gain.

I pick up where Oscar left off and hope I can hold the course
that he set. My aim this morning is to be an ambassador for the
risen Christ and call all of you to a serious engagement with
taking the gospel to unreached peoples either as goers or senders.
No neutral people at Bethlehem. No bystanders. No mere spectators.
And when I am done I hope to issue a call for all of you who
believe God is at work in your lives to lead you into missions as a
goer to come forward for prayer and for a plan to pursue this
trajectory for your life.

Now let's turn to three focuses related to this text: 1)
Christ's triumphant commitment to build his church (v. 18). 2)
Christ's unwavering commitment to gather his church from all the
peoples of the world, not just Westerners or white or red or black
or yellow – but all peoples, every shade, every language,
every tribe. 3) Christ's radical way of winning the nations,
namely, by the death of himself and the death of his people. The
gates of Hades will not prevail. They will be unlocked from the
inside.

1. Christ's Triumphant Commitment to Build His church

In Matthew 16:15 Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do you say that
I am?" Peter answers in verse 16, "You are the Christ [the
Messiah], the Son of the living God." To this Jesus says in verse
17-18, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did
not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (18) I also
say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." In other
words, "On you, my authoritative apostle, and my inspired
proclaimer of the gospel, I will build my church. I will build my
church on the apostolic word."

What I want to drive home here is the triumphant authority of
this promise. World missions is not ultimately dependent on human
initiative or human wisdom or human perseverance. It is ultimately
dependent on the power and wisdom and faithfulness of the risen and
living Christ to keep this promise: "I will build my church." Not,
"You will build my church." Or, "Missionaries will build my
church." Or, "Pastors will build my church." But, "I will
build my church."

So Paul was jealous to give this glory to Jesus. In Romans 15:18
he says, "I will not presume to speak of anything except what
Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the
obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed." Christ accomplished
it. Christ brought about the obedience of the peoples. Yes,
missionaries are crucial. Pastors and elders are crucial. But we
are not ultimate. Christ is ultimate. "I will build my
church." One missionary plants. Another missionary or pastor
waters. Yes. But Christ gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6).
Christ builds the church. Church planting and church establishing
is supernatural work, or it is not the church that gets built, but
only a human organization.

This was the point of the way Matthew ended his gospel in
28:18-19, where Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations." I have authority to do it – over all the powers of
darkness, over death and hell, over government and terrorists
– and I will do it. I will build my church. So go! I will be
with you.

Was Jesus Building His Church on September 11?

So to put a point on it: Was Jesus building his church on
September 11? Remember well: God's ways are not our ways, and his
thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). "How unsearchable are
His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" (Romans 11:33). What if
Christ saw these planes heading for the destruction of thousands
and the upheaval of nations? What if, at the same time, he saw 200
million Hindu untouchables in India, the Dalits. What if he saw
that his centuries-long work of dislodging them from Hindu bondage
was about to come to consummation and they were contemplating
embracing Islam or possibly Christianity or Buddhism to escape the
caste system? And what if he foresaw that this Islam-driven terror
against civilians in New York would have the mass effect of tilting
millions of Dalits away from the falsehood of Islam toward the
truth of Christianity? What if he withheld his power from stopping
the terrorists because, along with 10,000 other hope-filled
effects, he had a view to the everlasting life of thousands or
millions of untouchables in India? Was he building his church on
September 11?

One thing is sure. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations" (Matthew
24:14). The Christ who rules earth and heaven said, "I will build
my church." Do you hear God's call in that on your life? Do you
want to pursue something absolutely certain? Do you want to give
yourself to something invincible? Nothing done for this Christ is
ever done in vain. Give yourself to his cause.

2. Christ's Unwavering Commitment to Gather His Church from All
Peoples

My second point is that Christ has an unwavering commitment to
gather his church from all the peoples of the world, not just
Westerners or white or red or black or yellow – but all
peoples, every shade, every language, every tribe.

This is plain from Matthew 28:19, "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations." It's plain from Matthew
24:14, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole
world as a testimony to all the nations." It's plain from
Romans 15:11 where Paul quotes Psalm 117:1, "praise the lord all
you gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him." And it
is plain from Revelation 5:9, "You were slain, and purchased for
God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people
and nation."

And here I have a special burden this morning to say Christ has
a commitment to gather a church from all the Muslim peoples of the
world – not with the sword or the bullet, but with the Spirit
and the Word. Islam is not ethnically uniform or monolithic. The
largest Muslim country is Indonesia: 228 million people (Javanese,
Sundanese, Madurese, Malays, etc.). Most of Northern Africa is
Muslim. Indian peoples, Chinese peoples, Central Asian peoples.
Christ is committed to building his church of all the Muslim
peoples of the world.

The issue in the Muslim world today – as in every other
religion and every
other era – is Who is Jesus, and will we
treasure him and trust him and honor him for who he really is? And
the reason the matter is urgent with the Muslim peoples is because
they give the same wrong answer to this question that some Jews
gave in verse Matthew 16:14. Who is Jesus? "And they said, 'Some
say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others,
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.'" For Islam, Jesus is
"one of the prophets." He is not the Son of God. He is not the
crucified and risen Redeemer of fallen man. He is not the Creator
of the universe. And every knee will not bow to him and confess
that Jesus is Lord of all to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore Islam profoundly dishonors Jesus Christ and is not the
way to everlasting joy in God. There is "one mediator also between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). There is one
way, one truth, one life, Jesus Christ, and no one comes to the
Father but by him (John 14:6). He who has the Son has life, and he
who has not the Son does not have life (1 John 5:12).

This is why missions is absolutely necessary. "He who
believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not
obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him"
(John 3:36). "How will they believe in Him whom they have
not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?"
(Romans 10:14). Christ will build his church. But he will do it
through the hearing of the gospel of Christ. He will do it through
the word carried by human ambassadors. We call them missionaries.
One of the most exalted titles in the world. People of whom the
world is not worthy – no matter how many struggles they
have.

Which leads us to one last point. How will it be done?

3. Christ's Radical Way of Winning the Nations

Christ's radical way of winning the nations is by the death of
himself and the death of his people. The gates of Hades will not
prevail. They will be unlocked from the inside.

Consider verse 18b: "I will build My church; and the gates of
Hades will not overpower it." The gates of Hades are the gates of
death. Hades is the place of the dead in Jewish thought. The gates
of Hades are the gates that make death look powerful and secure
invincible – as if what is dead is dead forever and can never
get out of death. But Jesus says, "These gates will not stop me
from rescuing people from death."

How will he do it? He tells us in verse 21. After he makes it
plain that he is the Christ and the Son of God and that all
authority belongs to him in the universe and that he has the power
over death, it says, "From that time Jesus began to show His
disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from
the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be
raised up on the third day." He will open the doors of Hades from
the inside. He gets in by dying. He gets out by resurrection. And
now the gates are his. Revelation 1:18, "I died, and behold I am
alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." The
keys were kept on the inside. That is why he went in. And when he
came out he brought the keys with him. Now he will build his
church. Death will take none and keep none that he finally wills to
have.

And what about us? How do we figure in? He tells us in verses
24-25, "Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come
after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow
Me. (25) For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but
whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." To follow Jesus
means to join him on the Calvary road that leads into death and
then out of death. "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it." Lose it to find it. Die so you can live.

We Win the Nations by Dying and Living with Jesus, by
Faith

This is how we win the peoples with Jesus Christ. We do what he
did. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). We die with him and live with
him, by faith.

Jesus died and rose again to save his church among all the
peoples. "I will build my church." Now he calls us this morning:
Will we join him in dying to the world and living to Christ that we
may win the peoples in his name? Whoever loses his life for Christ
and the gospel will find it and will bring others through the gates
from death to life. Amen!

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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